PUTRAJAYA: Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman was legally entitled to the money collected from donors in his political campaign, the Court of Appeal says.
Justice Noorin Badaruddin said the appellant would not have been embroiled in allegations of fund misappropriation if the money was directly deposited into his bank account.
The court agreed with Syed Saddiq’s defence that the money that came from public contribution was his as it was meant to finance his election campaign effectively and not meant for Armada Bersatu, his former political party.
“We are of the considered view that if only the donation had been deposited directly into the appellant’s account, the appellant would not have to face this drawback of being charged with dishonest misappropriation of money which he is entitled to,” said Justice Noorin who took more than an hour to read the judgment in which the appellate court acquitted Syed Saddiq on four counts of abettment, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM1.2mil from Armada’s coffers.
Two other judges on the Bench were Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Azman Abdullah.
The Bench allowed Syed Saddiq’s appeal after finding that the trial judge had erred and there was simply no judicial appreciation on Syed Saddiq’s defence.
“It is not sufficient for the learned trial judge to say that he had considered or evaluated the evidence when the said consideration or evaluation could not be found in his judgment,” she added.
The court also found no evidence that the key prosecution witness, former Armada assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali, had withdrawn the RM1mil dishonestly, which is a key ingredient in the charge.
The witness had, in fact, admitted to withdrawing the money as he was following the instruction of the appellant (Syed Saddiq).
“Causing, commanding, or instructing someone to withdraw the money cannot be said to dispose the money. The act of withdrawal does not fit actus reus (action or conduct which is a constituent element of a crime),” Justice Noorin said.
On the money laundering charges, the court found that the trial judge did not make any findings relating to the appellant’s defence that the proceeds in both the charges were not proceeds of unlawful activity.
“There was no consideration at all as to the appellant’s defence that he had no reason to believe or suspect that the RM100,000 transferred into his ASB account were proceeds from unlawful activity or the instrumentalities of his scheduled offence,” Justice Noorin added.
On the defence’s argument that Rafiq had tailored his evidence to “appease” the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the court found merit in the contention that witnesses were pressured in their evidence, giving rise that the MACC might have exerted pressure in the case.
Meanwhile, Justice Ahmad Zaidi, who chaired the panel, said the conviction by the High Court was “unsafe”.
“The conviction and sentence is therefore set aside,” he said, before acquitting Syed Saddiq.
On Nov 9, 2023, Justice Azhar Abdul Hamid convicted Syed Saddiq on four charges of abetting in criminal breach of trust (CBT), misappropriation of funds and money laundering involving RM1.2mil.
The High Court sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment, a RM10mil fine and two strokes of the cane for all four charges.
Syed Saddiq was charged with abetting Rafiq, who was entrusted with RM1mil of Armada’s funds, to commit CBT by misappropriating the funds.
On the second charge, the former youth and sports minister was charged with misappropriating RM120,000 from Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise’s Maybank Islamic Bhd account by making Rafiq dispose of the money.
He was also charged with two counts of money laundering via transactions of RM50,000 each, believed to be proceeds from unlawful activities, from his Maybank Islamic Bhd account into his Amanah Saham Bumiputera account.
